Arsenal secure major signing: Max Dowman agrees new contract with Gunners

Robin Bairner

24 Oct 2025 07:00 BST
4 min read

Arsenal have agreed a new contract with teen sensation Max Dowman, with the 16-year-old ready to commit his long-term future to the club.

Article continues under the video

Dowman will sign scholarship terms with the Emirates outfit immediately, with a professional deal to follow on the final day of 2027, when he will turn 17, according to The Athletic.

It is a deal that has long been in the pipeline, with FootballTransfers exclusively reporting in the summer that the thrilling young talent had also attracted the interest of Manchester City and Barcelona.

The Athletic confirms that the midfielder was offered “more lucrative” terms elsewhere but these were rejected so he could remain at the club he has been a lifelong fan of.

Arsenal, meanwhile, were confident that they could offer Dowman the correct structure, pathway and philosophy to maximise his game and to help him thrive under Mikel Arteta.

Insiders at the Emirates Stadium have long seen him as one of the standout talents for his age group and a potential homegrown star of the future, much in the mould of Bukayo Saka or Ethan Nwaneri, both of whom have graduated from Arsenal’s Hale End Academy to become regular figures in Arteta’s first team.

Now Dowman will sign an initial contract for two years at the Emirates when he turns 16 on December 31, with a professional agreement expected to come into force 12 months later.

Arteta on challenge of handling Dowman’s development

Arsenal are trying to be cautious over Dowman’s exposure to first-team football, but have made the 15-year-old their second-youngest player ever.

Mikel Arteta explained the situation prior to the Carabao Cup win over Port Vale as he said: “We need to change his times, his education, his allocation, where he is with his family. His diet is different, his sleep pattern is different, the training load is different. The amount of information, pressure and exposure is different, so we have to manage a lot of factors.

“When you add a lot of minutes with different teams, we need to be cautious and very careful. That’s what we are trying to do to find that balance to keep Max as connected as possible to the first team, but we need the right mixture of minutes like the other day with the Under-21s.”

Dowman has already made three appearances for the first team, winning significant praise as he has done so.

News of his new contract is the latest boost in this regard for Arsenal, who have recently seen William Saliba, Gabriel, Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly all agree new deals, underlining the strong foundation the Premier League leaders currently have.

The FootballTransfers app

Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.

The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:

•Google Play

•App Store